Cloud seeding is the intentional act of introducing artifical nuclei into a cloud to alter either cloud microstructure (cloud droplet and ice particle composition), or cloud dynamics (buoyancy), or both. Cloud seeding has mainly been used for the initiation or augmentation of precipitation, the suppression of hail, the augmentation of orographic snow, and fog dispersal. Other cloud seeding efforts have attempted to change the course of hurricanes, dissipate rain clouds to alleviate flooding, and suppress lightning to prevent forest fires. Increasing regional water supplies for the benefit of agriculture, industry, and recreation, and reduction in losses from damaging weather are primary reasons for cloud seeding.
Scientific principles
The rationale for cloud seeding centers on two scientifically established facts about clouds and precipitation processes: (a) clouds may be composed of vast numbers of supercooled water drops (i.e., liquid water at temperatures colder than 0°C), and (b)...
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Bibliography
Brier, G. W., Cotton, G. F., Simpson, J., and Woodley, W. L., 1972. Cloud seeding experiments: lack of bias in Florida series. Science, 176, 163–4.
Dennis, A. S., 1980. Weather Modification by Cloud Seeding. New York: Academic Press, 267 pp.
Howard, R. A., Matheson, J. E., and North, D. W., 1972. The decision to seed hurricanes. Science, 176, 1191–202.
Weisbecker, L. W., 1974. Snowpack, Cloud-Seeding, and the Colorado River: A Technology Assessment of Weather Modification. Norman, Okla.: University of Oklahoma Press, 86 pp.
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© 1999 Kluwer Academic Publishers
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Czys, R.R. (1999). Cloud seeding. In: Environmental Geology. Encyclopedia of Earth Science. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/1-4020-4494-1_58
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/1-4020-4494-1_58
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